Price: $459.95 (no: 30-1626-1)
Features: O-42 operation, can-style motor, smoke unit, coil coupler on tender, ProtoSound 3.0 sound and command system, wireless drawbar
Current road names: Pennsylvania RR with three road numbers
Today we’re taking a look at an O gauge Pennsylvania RR Decapod from the MTH RailKing line. The RailKing line offers nicely proportioned models with a little selective compression here and a dab of simplified detailing there. The electronics are the same as on a Premier line locomotive from MTH. Production quality is also at the same high level.
Opening the box
The long row of five drive wheels per side grabs your attention. This looks like a serious freight hauler out of the box. It says, “I’m no frilly Pacific hauling plutocrats to Philadelphia.” It looks ready to dig into a row of hoppers brimming over with coal or flats carrying Sherman tanks. The silver side rods stand out against the dark locomotive body. So simple, yet so much “wow” factor.
The face of the model is industrial and well balanced. At track level, there are footrests for the brakemen and a dummy coupler. Above that, on the pilot, are two air tanks. When I reviewed an earlier version of this model (November 2001 issue of Classic Toy Trains), I noted that the tanks looked too small compared to the prototype.
This is still the case, but the more I’ve looked at the model and compared its tanks with those seen in prototype photos, I’ve come to believe this is more a factor of design compression – to have made them larger would have forced the face (and the whole boiler) to be larger and the model taller – probably enough to negate O-31 operation. So I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. There is a platform for hostlers above the air tanks.
The smokebox face has well-executed rivet detail, and there is nice, deeply cast-in latch detailing around the smokebox hatch. The door has a Pennsy oval with the engine number “4534” emblazoned on it.
A large round headlight is mounted on top, and the engine number is duplicated on the sides. Classification lights rest on the boiler face, just down and behind the headlight. There is a small add-on turbine behind the headlight (presumably to power the lamp).
The boiler’s body is smooth and clean of imperfections. You’ll find add-on bells, a whistle, pop-off valves, and handrails running the length of the body.
Cast-in details include boiler bands, air and sand lines, firebox rivets, and caps on the sand dome.
The running board on the fireman’s side features an air compressor. Over on the engineer’s side there are air tanks below the board and four add-on lines of piping/conduit.
There is rivet detailing on the sides of the cab and the cab roof. The roof hatch is cast in as well. The backhead is decorated, and the cab has two crew figures.
The connection between the locomotive and tender is an easy-to-connect wireless drawbar.
The builder’s plate on the rear of this tender is marked as a 210F82. This is a large-capacity (210 tons of coal), over-the-road model with four axles. Each truck has chains attached for the manual brake system. The coal load is an add-on chunk-style type, and the car has grab irons on all four corners plus a ladder on the rear. There are red lenses and a backup light on the tender’s rear. A coil coupler is mounted on the rear truck.
The tender deck is painted red, and there are cast-in water hatches. The deck also has a so-called doghouse – a tiny shack on the rear to protect brakemen from the weather. This has a door and an overhang to hold back the rain.
Painting and decoration were great. The green is smoothly applied, and color borders (such as on the cab roof) are razor sharp. The engine’s and tender’s builder’s plates are clear and readable.
On the test track
I’ve mentioned that I’m not a big fan of smoke units – I like to breath oxygen in the room I’m running trains in! When I fired up the RailKing Decapod for the first time, I laughed out loud at the quantity it was producing. I regretted leaving my gas mask at home. Seriously, it was blowing; once the locomotive was moving forward, it created little smoke rings. After a few laps were made, I shut the smoke off!
The sound system was good, with nice, deep reproduction. The bell was fine, and the whistle has that suitably high-pitched almost-British sounding hoot.
The model ran smoothly in all speed ranges, especially on the low end with a command-mode low-speed average of 2.98 scale miles per hour and a conventional low-speed average of 4.56 scale miles per hour.
The high-speed average was 72.6 scale miles per hour that a real I-class engine might have briefly attained going over the side of the famed Rockville Bridge.
This locomotive mustered 2 pounds, 3 ounces of drawbar pull.
Fiddling with the coupler mounted on the rear tender, I found it sensitive enough to place a row of cars and uncouple and then gently back into the cars, snap shut, and pull the string out of a siding.
I generally don’t address price in a review, but looking back at this model’s MSRP in 2001 versus today, the $30 price increase over 14 years is more than offset by the improved speed control and the sound package. I like the engine, and it will bring a quintessential, rugged Pennsylvania RR freight locomotive design to all but the smallest O gauge model railroads.
